Capitol Limited

Name	Capitol Limited
Start	Chicago
End	Washington, D.C.
Distance	781 Miles
Duration	17 Hours
Creation	1923 by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

August 27

We are off on our last overnight segment of the trip!!! Terri had enough of coach (to be fair, the night before, the person directly behind us was watching a movie without headphones well into the night, and the person across from us was on the phone talking about Spiderman for hours past midnight), so we upgraded to a roomette to end on a high note.

The train took off a bit late in the evening, so it was dark before we were far outside of Chicago. The only thing we did see was our train causing a traffic jam in South Bend, Indiana - I guess having your former mayor as the Secretary of Transportation doesn’t solve everything.

August 28

We ended up sleeping through Ohio and woke up just outside of Pittsburgh. For most of our trip through Pennsylvania we followed the Youghiogheny River. While this river doesn’t mark any borders, it does meet with the Monongahela River, which joins the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. The Ohio River marks the border of Ohio and Kentucky, Kentucky and Indiana, and Kentucky and Illinois before meeting with the Mississippi River. In other words, this whole trip just followed the Mississippi River!

We then followed the Potomac River, which serves as the border between West Virginia and Maryland, and crossed into and out of Maryland three times. The final crossing into Maryland was at Harpers Ferry where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet, but also where the Potomac serves as the border between West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia.

Finally, we arrived at Union Station in Washington, D.C. I have passed this station many times, but I don’t believe I ever went inside (I think I always went to and from Penn Station in Baltimore). While the waiting area looks like the old Penn Station in New York, the outside matches the grandiosity of DC.

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we rushed over to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (the only time we needed to be somewhere for a timed entry, Amtrak was late!). This was our first time going, and we planned it almost as soon as we booked the train tickets. There’s so much to see and read that 2.5 hours was nowhere near enough time (we barely made it through one level).

My favorite was the section on the American Revolution as my great ^ 6 grandfather fought in the war. The exhibit talked a lot about the 1st Rhode Island Regiment and the Bucks of America, two of the first all (or mostly) Black militias/regiments. I am note sure that my grandfather fought specfically with them, but he was in both Providence and Boston.

After taking in as much as we could before the museum closed, we made the rounds to our three branches of government.

We heard on the news that there were going to be protests on viting rights, but instead we saw a march for Afghanistan passing the White House and heading onto the Mall.

Finally, I met up with two of my friends from Maryland for dinner. I totally forgot to get a picture, but since we ate at the Founding Farmers, I thought this would work:

Now we are back at the hotel for the last night of our trip. We’re in a hotel with beds and showers. Our train rides tomorrow are for normal amounts of time. I cannot believe we have made it to this point!

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